Quintessential Brands has opened its €10m whiskey distillery and visitor experience in the heart of Dublin’s Liberties district (February 20).

Production of the Dublin Liberties Distillery’s whiskey portfolio – which includes its brands, The Dubliner and The Dublin Liberties – will now commence at the distillery under the supervision of former Bushmills master distiller, Darryl McNally.

The single malt-only distillery boasts a world-class cocktail bar and a visitor experience, providing an addition to Dublin’s vibrant whiskey tourism scene, which saw over one million visitors to Irish distilleries and whiskey experiences in 2018. It has three German-made stills (1x10,000 litre and 2x6,000 litre stills), which have the capacity to produce 200,000 9-litre cases or 2.1m bottles.

Quintessential says it's The Dubliner and The Dublin Liberties brands are sold in more than 30 markets around the world with sales in excess of 37,000 cases (9L) in 2018. It has ambitions to sell upwards of 50,000 cases globally in the year ahead.

It says McNally’s desire to push the boundaries of the Irish whiskey category inspired Quintessential Brands founders, Warren Scott and Enzo Visone, to join with him to build a distillery to match his vision. They were joined by Stock Spirits, a leading owner and producer of premium branded spirits and liqueurs principally sold in Central and Eastern Europe and Italy, who bought a 25% equity stake in the distillery and its brands in July 2017.

As well as the new expressions, McNally admitted he intends to experiment with double distilled and “slightly pleated” Irish whiskeys. As with most of the medium-to-smaller distillers, grain whiskey for blending will be bought in from one of the large distillers, and the necessary ageing will be down in two locations, one of which is around Wexford.

McNally said circa €12m is being spent on buying in between 10-12,000 casks for future ageing.

Dublin Liberties is Ireland’s 22 distillery. Pre-1920, there were estimated to be 102. In the mid 1980s, it was down to three. Forty-four are now planned.

Around the turn of the 20th century Ireland produced approximately 14m cases of whiskey. It now makes around 10m cases annually. Scotland produces 95m cases every year.

Quintessential Brands’ chief marketing officer, Shane Hoyne, majority owner of The Dublin Liberties Distillery, said: “Irish whiskey’s rise over the last few years has been phenomenal, but with talented visionaries like Darryl emerging, I believe we’re now entering its most exciting era yet. Darryl is a constant source of ideas and combined with his unrivalled distilling skill, there’s no limits for Irish whiskey. It is also fantastic to be partnering with a company of Stock Spirits’ calibre.

“Their involvement will also provide an opportunity for the brands to expand further in to new regions such as Poland and the Czech Republic. Right now, we’re taking a moment to celebrate the team’s achievement in building this fantastic distillery but with much more to come from us this year, I believe this is the year the Dublin Liberties Distillery makes its mark on the Irish whiskey category.”